Blog Archive

Friday, May 29, 2009

and... Judith

Speaking of Judith, I didn't start out with any of a subject within a theme, though this will be limited to two. I chose Cindy Sherman because she has been a fascination of mine for years. Sherman has created a number of different series throughout her career and I decided to look for one of her historical portraits. What do I come across but another wonderful interpretation of Judith and Holofernes I simply couldn't put off.

Sherman is connected to Buffalo, she attended Buffalo State College where she got interested in art and with fellow artist, Robert Longo, started an art center in Buffalo, Hallwalls (I attended a sculpture workshop there in high school).

I first saw one of Sherman's history portraits at the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. I was wandering through a gallery and initially took the work as another painting of an aristocrat of little interest to me, but something peaked my insterest so I returned to it and quickly discovered this was not your average old portrait. While Sherman is in her photographs they do not function as self-portraits, she becomes her character, visible yet anonymous. Her work is an interplay between concept and history, reality and fantasy. Her appropriation is fascinating.